The forgotten Guest

Now in the times of crisis we miss the guest - the income - the business - the life around us. But we forgot many of them already before the Corona panic changed hospitality forever.

The guest that didn’t reserve and book anymore should have had our attention before. Processing bookings , attracting guest for future bookings keeps your reservation department busy. But what is with guest that suddenly doesn’t book anymore? The company that is not using your hotel anymore? Was anybody noticing ? Does your hotel want to know where they are ? Why they are not coming to you anymore?

Follow up

Following up takes a little time and research but can reactivate guest and bookings that were lost . Maybe a complaint that was not handled right? A personal follow up will give the chance to recover the guest. Maybe your competition captured them? Why? What can you do better? A lot of possibilities for additional revenue. You will not get all back as there are also natural reasons for people to disappear but you will recover some and the service of remembering them, paying attention and contacting them will be appreciated.

For being efficient and successful in Reservation Department technique, digital and all other tools have to be activated and constantly up dated. The human factor can’t be neglected as it will back fire if you only leave it to the robots and administration to deal with your human guests. A human with emotions in a happy work environment will make reservations successful fun. A human reading from his SOP’s can be an accountant , student, or the cleaner. No emotion needed. Success will depend how good the script is but never more than standard.

Talk to your Guests

The daily talk with guest - the care when they come needs to be extended - as only the few great hospitality ventures do - by caring when they do not show up anymore. There is a reason and you should be interested in the - why?

Author: Stephan Busch, Academic Director at the State University for the Humanities Moscow RGGU, Faculty of Tourism & Hospitality and the Swiss International University earned his Master Certificate in Hospitality Management from Cornell University, USA. He has a diverse experience in launching operations, business development and service training- for hotel and cruise companies in Asia, Europe, Canada and Russia.

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